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From: "Sasson Margaliot" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Malaspina et al (2001)'s Cohens -- an answer ?
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:43:00 +0300
References: <46229610.30005@comcast.net>
In-Reply-To: <46229610.30005@comcast.net>


So the mystery of J21a Cohanim in Malaspina (2001) is resolved !

And they are in - or near - Pre-J2a1k, not far from the point in the
haplotype space where the cluster of Levites was also found ...

I already was going to suggest that the researchers had checked some
Catholic priests... (not seriously)



Bonnie wrote:


>
> I can't take the considerable amount of time right now that would be
> required to respond usefully to Sasson's last long posting. But I was
> looking into the Cohanim question last night, and downloaded the
> original data for one of the classic studies, Origins of Old Testament
> Priests, by Thomas et al, Nature, vol. 394, 9 Jul 1998.
>
> It's rather fascinating data. It showed that of 106 Cohanim studied
> (total of Ashkenazi and Sephardic), 54 had the 6-marker CMH, or 50.9%.
> The rest were scattered in very small numbers over a lot of other
> haplotypes. I will have to spend more time later to confirm the exact
> haplogroups signified by the categories they used in that early study,
> but from what I can tell, 1 Sephardic Cohen was somewhere in E (likely
> E3b), and in the R macrohaplogroup (probably R1b, but could also include
> R1a) there were 2 Ashkenazi and 6 Sephardic Cohanim. The rest were in a
> large polyphyletic group, that is, made up of more than one
> haplogroup. But it looks like perhaps 8 or 9 of the Cohanim might
> possibly be in non-J haplogroups within that larger group (outside of E
> and R) -- and as I said, this is only a report of my work in progress to
> decipher the data.



Then out of 106 Cohanim, only 17 (or 18) were outside of the Haplogroup J.

Then of 89 Cohanim in Haplogroup J, only 54 were in CMH-6.

What about the other 35 ? They were at various distances from CMH-6.

As I understand, it's among these 35 that the group of J2a1 Cohanim was
found. Very interesting.




> So then, among the scattered haplotypes which a few Cohanim had, there
> were some that did look like J, but were not the "CMH." Most of these
> were singletons, but there were a few small clusters.







>
> This cluster does exist on Ysearch, and three of
> its members have the surname of Cohen, a pretty good indication that
> they do have a Cohen tradition! If I had to explain why I hadn't
> noticed it before, one reason might be because most of them have only
> tested 12 markers.






>
> There are nine of them at my count, and here's their haplotype compared
> to the larger group that I was already aware of:
> ____"Pre-J2a1k"____"New" J2 Cohen cluster
> 393 - 12 - 12
> 390 - 23 - 23
> 19 - 15 - 15
> 391 - 10 - 10
> 385a - 14 - 14
> 385b - 17 - 17
> 426 - 11 - 11
> 388 - 15 - 16
> 439 - 12 - 12
> 389i - 13 - 14
> 392 - 11 - 11
> 389ii - 29 - 30



Al, how far is this new cluster from your haplotype ?


Sasson










>
> Jews are very strongly represented in this data, though not
> nearly as many Sephardim as there are Ashkenazim. I think a lot can be
> done with it. Most people who voluntarily share their DNA test results
> are also willing to tell whether they are Cohanim or not, so this
> information is not really so inaccessible and secret. Others may not
> agree, but I think as time goes on, the published findings will bear out
> what I'm describing. I would be surprised if there would be any other
> unrelated Cohen clusters of any size in J2, as I've searched up and down
> and asked questions of key people, but I've certainly been surprised
> before, so we'll just have to wait and see.
>
> Bonnie
>
>

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